Westcoastbooks

By Any Means by EM Caro

Summary

“Investigative journalist (and fierce anti-capitalist) Laurie Tulley is no stranger to the sins rich men commit in the name of profit. He’s made a front-page career out of unearthing the injustices of industry.

But when his editor turns his sights onto wealthy glass industrialist Charles “Chary” Wright, Laurie sees neither injustice nor sensationalism. All the openly queer and once-disowned Fifth Avenue businessman seems to have is a dead brother, a bizarre inheritance of a blueberry farm, and a lotta trauma.

Chary has his secrets, however: the big, life-ending kind. When Laurie comes snooping, he’s determined the reporter won’t find them out, no matter how handsome he is.

Then a worker from the glass factory is murdered. Chary himself is brutally attacked. As Laurie uncovers murder after past murder, he realizes there’s a story to be written after all… so long as he can keep a professional distance.

And when Chary finds himself in the arms of the very man meant to be his ruin, he must confront exactly how far he’ll go for love—and just which ghosts he’s willing to bring forth from the past.”

Review

I adored the relationship between Laurie and Chary. It starts off tentative and sweet, then gradually grows stronger as the story unfolds. I also appreciated how the author normalized queerness. While that isn’t historically accurate, it allows the novel to move beyond that aspect and focus on the characters and the story itself.

There is a major twist partway through the book (which I won’t spoil) that left me completely confused. I had to reread it twice, then went back to the first two chapters to try to make sense of what the author was doing. Unfortunately, I found it unnecessarily convoluted, and it pulled me out of the story. There were also a few smaller issues that were easier to overlook. For example, one character gives two wildly different ages when asked. This is later explained away as the character being evasive, but that justification didn’t feel consistent with the rest of their characterization.

**This review is based on an e-ARC generously provided to me through Netgalley**